According to Jung, myth-making is a natural and impersonal potential present in the collective unconscious of all peoples throughout all times. Drawing on the contributions of Jung, Campbell, and Eliade, this course explores the role of myth in human life. Five of the major mythological themes prominent in world mythology are examined in terms of their contemporary psychological and cultural significance:

Mythology of Creation

Mythology of The Divine Child

Mythology of The Hero

Mythology of The Shaman

Mythology of The Apocalypse

This episode is the introductory session for the series, titled “Mythology and Psychology: A Jungian Perspective”.

Jungian analyst and author Jean Shinoda Bolen leads a workshop for women “who seek to nurture their own creative and spiritual yearnings and find ways of expressing, articulating, and valuing what grows out of their inner life and the life they have lived so far. In the company of other women who know that suffering and joy and life are linked, personas drop away and soul comes forth.” Bolen weaves stories of psyche and goddess that have the power to touch themes and sacred places in the soul, and she leads listeners through a guided meditation, allowing the opportunity for personal symbols and myths to emerge. This tape set is also intended to serve as a model for women interested in forming their own spiritual groups. It was recorded in 1994.

Jungian analyst Murray Stein leads a study of the Bible for its insight into psychological questions about the ego’s proper relation to the self, the ultimate aim of individuation in coniunctio, and encounters with the shadow. The set includes the following lectures:

Origins: The Ego Once- and Twice-Born

Bondage vs. Freedom: Ego in Complex, Ego in Self

Good and Evil: The Problem of Shadow

Individuation: The Journey of Faith

Murray Stein, Ph.D. is a training analyst at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland. His most recent publications include The Principle of Individuation, Jung’s Map of the Soul, and The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis (Editor of the Jungian sections, with Ross Skelton as General Editor). He lectures internationally on topics related to Analytical Psychology and its applications in the contemporary world. Dr. Stein is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. and M.Div.), the University of Chicago (Ph.D., in Religion and Psychological Studies), and the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich. He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He has been the president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (2001-4), and is presently a member of the Swiss Society for Analytical Psychology and President of the International School of Analytical Psychology, Zurich.

A shaman is a person who has been forced by fate to take an inner, awe-filled journey which ultimately gives a new form to the person and to the culture. This journey demands sacrifice, isolation from the collective’s expectations, and a particular form of courage which is able to accept new forms of awareness and new forms of the divine.

Every religious tradition has stories of persons who have walked the “shamanic path.” Some religious traditions have called shamans by different names: sage, saint, and Bodhisattva are but a few of these names. There is also the little-discussed Christian shamanic tradition in which C.G. Jung stands, both as a visionary and as a healer of souls. This course uses the writings of C.G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz as a basis for discussing the role of the shaman in general and the Christian shaman in particular. It was recorded in 1994.

Thomas Patrick Lavin, PhD is a Zürich-trained Jungian analyst who holds a PhD in clinical psychology and a PhD in theology. He was formerly chief clinical psychologist for the U.S. Army in Europe and is a founding member of the CG Jung Institute of Chicago. He is in private practice in Wilmette, Illinois, and consults internationally on typology, spirituality and addictions.

In this seminar, Dr. Moore stresses that “although it is important that people find and affirm their common human spiritual roots, it is time to realize that tribalism in human culture, politics, and religion must be transcended. Jungian thought may be a vehicle to assist in facilitating that process.”